Trump administration removes climate research. Scientists protest

At the end of July, a controversial report denying the credibility of climate change research was published in the United States. The Trump administration is attempting to use it to halt efforts to reduce emissions and environmental pollution. Dozens of climate scientists are now preparing a coordinated response.

EPA wants to lower environmental standards

The report in question was prepared by five scientists already known as staunch climate change deniers who openly sow doubts among the American public. According to critics of the Trump administration, the study commissioned by the Department of Energy (DOE) was created in haste and has no substantive value. Nevertheless, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to use it as a basis to overturn earlier scientific findings on the negative impact of climate change on human health and safety.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, in an interview with CNN, proudly presented the controversial decision as the biggest deregulation proposal in American history, suggesting that climate change is a religion rather than a scientific fact. As a result, the EPA also plans to repeal previous regulations promoting the production of electric and hybrid cars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The official draft amendment to the regulations states that while greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are indeed rising, their sources lie outside the territory of the United States.

Scientists will fight back

Both the report itself and the resulting EPA proposals have sparked loud protests in the American scientific community. As a result, dozens of experienced climate scientists have decided to openly object to the way the Trump administration plans to erase from history credible, widely accepted facts about climate change. The initiative is coordinated by Andy Dessler, director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather at Texas A&M University.

The scientists’ first step will be to prepare a public commentary on the report published by the Department of Energy. Its head, Chris Wright, announced last Friday that the previous climate assessments of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), already removed from all government websites, would return only after proper editing.

“We want to bring all the scientific facts to light so that any debate can be conducted on the basis of reliable knowledge,” announced Andy Dessler. His team will review the Trump administration’s report chapter by chapter, pointing out inaccuracies, mistakes, and omitted facts.

Trump administration under environmental fire

Dessler’s initiative is grassroots in nature, bringing together members of the scientific community in a spontaneous act of solidarity with the Earth. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is also protesting against the actions of the ruling team. Its representatives announced last Thursday that they would prepare a comprehensive analysis of key climate research findings since 2009, when the first official report on the harmful effects of climate change was published. The study will be released as early as September and will be entirely funded by the academic community.

Decades of research and climate data collection have expanded our understanding of the impact of greenhouse gases on the climate. We are undertaking a fresh analysis of the latest scientific findings to provide policymakers and the public with the most up-to-date assessment of the facts, announced Marcia McNutt, president of NAS.

Will America therefore face a rational debate in which facts have a chance to win? Unfortunately, so far the Trump administration has shown no willingness for objective discussion, producing its own theories and erasing those inconvenient to the development of a fossil-fuel-based economy, which is the new president’s holy grail. As one anonymous scientific expert in the federal government told CNN, the infamous climate change deniers’ report looks like someone gathered all the nonsense from the last 10 years, didn’t put it in the fridge, and just vomited it up.

For now, the Department of Energy has announced that the report is open for scientific consultation until September 2, but it defends the credibility of its authors and refuses to respond to scientists’ criticism.